Thursday, March 22, 2012

2011
Stats: .304/.356/.441 with 3 HR, 19 RBI and 18 SB in 59
games between Rookie league AZ and low-A Lake County.

Scouting
Report: A converted 2B, Rodriguez’s calling card is his
game-changing speed. He profiles as a true top of the order hitter who can get
on base and then be a do some damage once he gets there, almost in the mold of
a Kenny Lofton. Despite still learning how to read pitchers and get good jumps,
Rodriguez has stolen an impressive 49 bases in his 122 career games. He doesn’t
have much power, and really never profiles to hit even double-digit home runs
regularly in the upper levels, but leadoff men like him are not easy to find.
He has a quick, line-drive bat and can spray line drives all over the park. For
his age and experience, he has a solid approach and knows how to take a walk.
As an 18-year old in low-A Lake County last year, Rodriguez walked 14 times
while striking out 36 in 148 at bats. Not a great ratio, but not bad for an
18-year old in his first taste of full-season ball.

Rodriguez is still learning the intricacies of outfield
defense, and still needs to improve his reads and jumps on balls hit his way.
His speed allows him to outrun his mistakes in the lower levels, but that’s not
going to last forever. He is already a decent defender who projects to be plus
once he gets some experience. He has a good arm, but not spectacular. No single
tool other than his speed is really elite, but no tool other than power
projects to be below average. When you put it all together, he’s an intriguing
prospect with the potential to be a solid player at the big league level. Leadoff-hitting
center fielders don’t grow on trees, and Rodriguez could potential be just
that. He will likely play all of 2012 as a Lake County Captain, and will be one
of the many players that makes that team a lot of fun to watch this year.

Glass
Half-Full: An everyday CF who gets on base and
disrupts the game with his speed

Scouting
Report: Lee has been one of the more dominant relievers in
the system over the past few years, posting gaudy strikeout numbers across
several levels of the minor leagues. In 227 1/3 career innings pitched, Lee has
struck out an impressive 278 hitters. That averages out to an eye-popping 11
strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. He’s given up just 0.6 HR/9 in his career,
and has a 3.81 K/BB ratio. This isn’t a Cory Burns situation where he’s
dominating minor league hitters with a deceptive motion; Lee has outstanding
stuff to match those gaudy numbers.

Despite being less than 6 feet tall, Lee gets his
fastball up to as high as 97 MPH, and sits comfortably between 92-94. He comes
at hitters from a variety of arm angles, throwing anywhere from ¾ to a low
sidearm slot. Because of this, his fastball can move in a variety of different
ways depending on arm angle and grip. All of this, and his fastball isn’t even
his best pitch. That would be his plus slider that has outstanding tilt and is
almost unfair to righthanded batters. The pitch can buckle the knees of
righties, and has made hitters look awfully foolish over the years.

In addition to the fastball and slider, Lee throws a
sinker and a forkball/changeup. The change has good down action when he uses
it, but isn’t as effective of a pitch as the slider. Lee is an alumni of the
Taiwanese national team, starting for them from 2004-2008. His best start was a
dominant outing against international powerhouse Cuba in 2006, going 8 1/3
innings, striking out 6 and allowing just 2 hits in a victory. Since coming
stateside, Lee has pretty much exclusively been a reliever as 5’11” righties
don’t typically get much of a chance to start. It’s working out well, as his
stuff plays up in his relief role and the Indians have a great RP prospect in
the pipeline.

Lee might have some trouble breaking in to a crowded
Cleveland bullpen, and will likely start the season in AAA Columbus. But he’s
the best righthanded reliever in the system, and should be the first guy called
up in case of injury or ineffectiveness in the big league bullpen. Either way,
he’s one of my favorite pitchers to watch, especially when he’s facing
righthanded batters.

Scouting
Report: Washington was a first round pick for Tampa Bay in
2009, but they couldn’t come to terms and he went back to college and ended up
getting paid 1st round money to sign after the Indians took him in
the 2nd round in 2010. Washington is an elite athlete, with
outstanding speed and quick hands. He projects to have an above-average hit
tool and at least gap power. He has a good feel for the strike zone, a solid
approach and should be able to draw at least his share of walks. Coming out of
college, he was garnering comparisons to Carl Crawford. Well, both he and Carl
Crawford had similar seasons in 2011, and that’s not a good thing.

Both Crawford and Washington struggled with injuries
and their swings in 2011. Both came into the season with high expectations, and
neither managed to produce very much. Some scouts saw some issues with
Washington’s swing, and it’s almost understandable that he struggled to find
consistency in his first year using wood bats, especially considering all of
the injuries. The tools are still there, but of course at some point the
performance has to match up to the scouting reports and that just isn’t
something that happened last year.

Washington’s defense projects to be solid, but never
really plus. He has great speed and does a nice job running down balls in the
outfield, but has had shoulder issues that will prevent him from ever having
even an average arm. Because of that, he’ll never really have a chance to be an
impact defender.

One of the complaints about Washington coming out of
college is that he had a very relaxed attitude on the field, almost
disinterested. To his credit, Washington has exhibited a great attitude his
entire time with the Indians, and worked hard to rehab from his various
injuries. Anyone with a twitter account is well aware that Washington is a bit
of a showman, as his all caps tweets of #WASHITIME dominate our timelines. He
even designed his own line of #WASHTIME t-shirts, had them made up and sent to
some of his fans, all on his own dime. Interestingly though, Washington’s
twitter account has been dark since his arrival in Goodyear in late January. It
looks like he’s buckling down and doing everything he can to get ready for the
upcoming season. He’s a potential breakout player in the system, as the talent
is definitely there. He just needs a healthy year to put it all together, and I
can’t wait to see what WASHTIME does in 2012. He’s fallen out of pretty much
everyone’s organizational top-10 lists, but I’m going to keep him at #9 because
I believe in the tools.

Glass
Half-Full: 2010 Carl Crawford

Glass
Half-Empty: 2011 Carl Crawford

7.
Nick Hagadone, LHP

DOB:
1/1/1986

Height/Weight:
6-5/230

Bats/Throws:
Left/Left

Acquired:
As
part of the Victor Martinez deal in 2009. Originally a 1st round
sandwich pick of the Red Sox in 2007

Scouting
Report: Hagadone is a big, strong, power lefty that has
electric stuff. He’s drawn comparisons to Billy Wagner, only taller. That’s
some pretty high praise. He worked his way from AA Akron all the way to the
majors last year, featuring a plus fastball that sits comfortably in the
mid-90’s and has touched 99. He pitches primarily off the fastball, and uses it
to attack hitters and get ahead in the count. Then he can goes to his above-average
to plus slider, a power pitch with sharp, late life. When Hagadone was still a
starter, he was working on a changeup, but it’s a pitch that he only has to
show on occasion to keep hitters honest not that he’s working exclusively out
of the bullpen.

Hagadone was finally healthy last season, and it was
his first season as a fulltime reliever. Now that he has some more experience
pitching out of the bullpen and is sure of his role going forward, I expect big
things out of Hagadone. He made huge strides in his command, going from 6.6
walks per 9 innings in 2010 all the way down to 2.8 in 2011. Hagadone of course
had Tommy John surgery in 2008, so it seems like it just took a little while
for his command and control to come all the way back to pre-surgery levels. If he
can improve his slider command a little, it will go a long ways towards making
Hagadone a dominant reliever at the major league level.

Hagadone should be one of three lefties in the
bullpen mafia at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario this year, and by the end
of the season he could end up being the most dominant of the three. While many
people this offseason were suggesting that closer Chris Perez could be traded
because Pestano would be ready to step in at closer, it might actually be
Hagadone that projects to that role in the long-term.

Glass
Half-Full: Hagadone ends up as a dominant closer in
the majors

Glass
Half-Empty: Hagadone ends up as a solid back-end
reliever in the majors

6.
Ronny Rodriguez, SS

DOB:
4/17/1992

Height/Weight:
6’/170
lbs

Bats/Throws:
Right/Right

Acquired:
International
Free Agent in 2010

2011
Stats: .246/.274/.449 with 11 HR, 42 RBI and 10 SB in 98
games for low-A Lake County

Scouting
Report: When looking at Rodriguez’s batting line from 2011,
you’re probably not blown away. In fact, you may be wondering why he’s ranked
this high. Well, first, consider that Rodriguez put up that line in the
difficult hitting environment of the Midwest League. Then consider that he did
it as a 19-year old. Then bear in mind that he playing professional baseball
for the first time ever. Now take another look at that line, especially the
power, and understand that this is a kid with the defensive chops to stick at SS.
Are you a little more impressed now?

Rodriguez has above-average raw power, and it’s
already showing up in games with his 10 HR last year. He has extremely strong
wrists and does a good job barreling the baseball on pitches in the zone. He
needs to work on pitch recognition (as the .274 OBP indicates), but if he can
refine his approach and lay off pitches outside the strike zone, he could
become a scary-good hitter. Rodriguez walked just 13 times while striking out
83 in 370 AB last year, numbers that have to improve if he’s going to rise
through the system. But again, this is a teenager who was getting his first
taste of organized baseball and his first experience with professional
pitching, so I’m confident he can adjust and improve.

Like his offense, Rodriguez’s defensive game is
imperfect but promising. He has a cannon for an arm and made some spectacular
plays at short last year, but still needs to work on the little things like
properly circling behind the baseball to make on balance throws, and getting
more consistent on the routine plays. He did make 38 errors in his 97 games at
SS for the Captains. More than anything, Rodriguez just needs reps, as he’s as
raw of a player as you will find in the system. He’ll likely play most of 2012
in high-A Carolina, another difficult league for hitters. A repeat of his 2011
stats with an improvement in the OBP would be a step in the right direction for
the raw, toolsy youngster. He has the ability to be an all-star shortstop
someday, but that is a long, long ways off.